News & Updates — FORE Announcements
Richard Schottenfeld, M.D., a Pioneer in Bringing Addiction Treatment to Underserved Communities, Joins FORE’s Board of Directors
December 20, 2019We are pleased to welcome Richard Schottenfeld, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Howard University College of Medicine, to FORE’s Board of Directors. Schottenfeld is an innovator in the field of addiction medicine and the integration of treatment for substance use and other psychiatric disorders in primary care settings.
“Dr. Schottenfeld brings a unique combination of academic rigor and hands-on experience,” says Andrea Barthwell, M.D., FORE’s board chair, the founder and CEO of Two Dreams, and medical director at Encounter Medical Group. “From his early experience as a general practitioner in rural Wyoming to his current efforts to bring treatment and recovery services into urban, community-based settings, he has consistently responded to the needs of patients and found practical ways to help. The urban primary care clinic he directed served as a model for integrating substance use treatment to primary care.”
Schottenfeld also led some of the early studies of medication-assisted treatments for opioid use disorder in primary care clinics and physicians’ offices. His studies of buprenorphine helped lead to approval in the U.S. of buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder outside of specialized narcotic treatment programs.
“The thrust of my career has been to make substance use disorder treatment more readily available to more people,” says Schottenfeld. “I am thrilled to be joining FORE’s efforts to identify what’s working and spread innovative models around the nation.”
As a leading clinical researcher and educator, Schottenfeld has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed publications, directed training programs in addiction psychiatry, and led post-doctoral drug abuse clinical research. He also created an interdisciplinary faculty development program that has produced a cadre of faculty in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and psychiatry leading to the development of substance use disorders training, clinical services, and research in their departments.
Schottenfeld earned a B.A. from Yale College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, and with distinction in English literature. After earning an M.D. degree from Yale, he completed an internship in internal medicine at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City before working for a year as a general practitioner in Hanna and Green River, Wyoming. He returned to Yale to complete psychiatry residency training and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program clinical research fellowship.